Blood Transfusion Suspected in New Mad Cow Case in Britain

By ALICIA AULT

Published: January 28, 2004

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27—
A Food and Drug Administration policy announced on Monday banning the feeding of cattle blood to calves was partly based on a new case of mad cow disease in which a Briton may have been infected through a blood transfusion, a Food and Drug Administration official said on Tuesday.

At a Senate hearing, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, questioned why the food agency had instituted the ban when, he said, scientific evidence indicated that infectious particles that are believed to cause mad cow disease, misfolded proteins called prions, had never been found in blood.

The agency official, Dr. Lester Crawford, told the committee that a new case of the human form of the disease, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, came to light in late December in Britain. The ill person had received a blood transfusion from an infected donor, prompting concern among the authorities who are trying to determine whether the disease was transmitted through the blood, said Dr. Crawford, a deputy commissioner with the agency.

''The new case in England has caused shock waves around the globe,'' Dr. Crawford said. There have been no proven cases of transmission of mad cow in humans through blood transfusions.

If further investigation substantiates that the infection occurred from a transfusion, Dr. Crawford added, that ''means that prions may be found in the blood.''

The food agency already limits blood donations from people who lived in Britain or received transfusions there during the height of the mad cow epidemic from 1980 to the mid-1990's. In light of the new case, it will revisit its blood donor policies at an advisory committee meeting in February, Jay Epstein, director of the agency's Office of Blood Research and Review, said.

Dr. Crawford testified at the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee hearing, where senators mostly praised the agency's new efforts to limit exposure to mad cow disease. Some senators questioned the newly announced ban on the use of dead and disabled cattle for cosmetics, dietary supplements and some food.

Senator Grassley, for example, suggested that the cattle might have injuries unrelated to mad cow.

Senators approved of the Agriculture Department's plans to develop a national system to identify and track all cattle, prompted by the discovery in December of an infected cow in Washington State, although some expressed concerns about the costs to ranchers.

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman told the senators that an expert panel was reviewing her department's surveillance for mad cow disease, and hinted that there could be changes in testing.

Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, said he had asked for an investigation into why it took so long to identify where the infected cow came from, why it was allowed to be processed and whether there had been leaks that led to a collapse in cattle futures prices.

Many lawmakers expressed dismay with the testing of cattle for mad cow disease. Ms. Veneman said the department planned to double the number tested this year, to 40,000. But Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said 35 million cattle were slaughtered in the United States each year, and he pressed Ms. Veneman on why the department did not follow Japan's lead in testing all slated for slaughter.

The secretary said federal testing was in sync with the guidelines of the World Organization for Animal Health.

Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a leading expert on prions, said at a forum later on Tuesday that until all cattle were tested, none could be considered safe. He noted that prion infection could be spontaneous. Speaking at a House Food Safety caucus forum on mad cow disease, Dr. Prusiner noted that ''changing feeding practices won't eliminate the spontaneous cases.''

The beef industry has suffered since the infected cow was discovered last month, with dozens of countries closing their doors to American beef. Ms. Veneman said that ''regaining our export markets is a top priority for the administration.''

Senator Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, asked rhetorically if the department had a plan for some 200 million pounds of beef that were in ships at sea, waiting for acceptance by a foreign market. Senator Daschle and other lawmakers also called for faster carrying out of a new law requiring that meat from other countries carry labels stating its origin.

Photo: Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman, center, told a Senate hearing yesterday that the number of cattle tested for mad cow disease this year would double, to 40,000. Some senators said more should be tested. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times)